[lbo-talk] Who Owns Your Work?

[Gar Lipow]

On 8/11/05, snitsnat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> sorry 'bout that. unfinished.
> 
> Anyone have good idears for a blog name? ha ha ha! no seriously. my
> creative brain cells are fried!
> 
> Basically, it's all bogus. Yoshie and Dwayne, I honestly don't know what to
> do about publicity and raising funds to help with this. Besides, what it
> basically boils down to is a SLAP in the economic competition sense: using
> the courts to bleed the competition so they can't keep their business going.
> 
> No one is going to care about that. Oh, wow, big whoop. Who cares? It's not
> like a freedom of speech issue. It's just what businesses do to each other
> every single day, bleed the other guy dry. Only in this case, it's small
> potatoes. His tens of thousands against our five thousand.
> 
> Unless you have money for an attorney to send letters and file motions, you
> can't do what you are allowed to do by law when the other guy is willing to
> do whatever they can afford to do until the courts finally screams uncle.
> 
> A bulldog attorney will want to be paid to be a bulldog. Simple as that.
> 
> And never mind all that: this culture has a strong tendency to believe that
> you are guilty until proven innocent. People can't wrap their head around
> why. So what that I say that I had permission. So what that I posted here,
> 20 minutes after i was laid off, that I thought i was free to use my work.
> You have to have some bona fides with people to put their trust in you.
> 
> Anyway, I was joking before about that Patriot Act. (I mean, with my luck,
> I do NOT know, but hey...) Anyway, I was referring to the allegations
> leveled in the first complaint.
> 
> Cliams about the Patriot Act and executive orders were made PRO SE.
> 
> If you saw it, you would see why it had to be amended. So, what happened
> was, an attorney stepped in, cleaned it up, removed the PA stuff, and
> entered something that was only slightly less full of holes.
> 
> The first complaint, though, is full of the most egregious slander. None of
> it is acceptable in a pleading. BUT, it's all in the public record. So,
> background check me, r, or sonshine and guess what? It's on our record now
> and there is NOTHING in employment law to stop it. An employer can say
> anything they want in a complaint filed in civil court. No background check
> is going to note that it was pro se.
> 
> And so what? What happens when people even get a whiff that you might not
> be on good terms? It doesn't matter how good you are or how golden you are.
> You are screwed.
> 
> So, you get the privilege of paying an attorney to file a motion to get it
> dismissed -- there's another term that's stronger. I've forgotten what it is.
> 
> But you see? It doesn't matter. There it is. Do you think any of us will
> pass muster now? Do you think that I will ever find out that I don't get a
> job or a contract b/c of the background check so i CAN sue?
> 
> Nice, eh? Even nicer: They can keep doing it and doing it and doing it.
> Anyone can file a complaint pro se or hire an attorney, pay the filing fee,
> and force you to hire an attorney to file another motion to get it
> nullified. Otherwise, if it stays in the public record unanswered, you
> don't look good. MY son, who had nothing to do with any of this, has been
> named.
> 
> Do you really think that was necessary? That was put in there to terrify
> me. There is nothing you can do to sanction this crap.
> 

A lot of us are not in a position to donate money. But I hope  you
will let the list  know if there is anything else we can do. In terms
of  Blog title: are you thinking of a blog focusing specifically on
IP, and  SLAPP type issues? Or a more  general snitblog?